Foundation bi-shoulder pad



Aug. 13, 1957 s. VOGEL FOUNDATION BL-SHOULDER PAD Filed lla .rch 31, 1955 F. w I

INVENTOR. 5 0/ 1/096 ATTORNEY 2,802,216 FOUNDATION Ill-SHOULDER PAD Sol Vogel, New York, N. Y.

Application March 31, 1955, Serial No, 498,129

1 Claim. (Cl. 2-268) 7 This invention relates to a foundation shoulder pad for garments adapted to simultaneously fit both shoulders in accurate snug relationship. v

The prior art shoulder pads are individual pads which allegedly may be used on the right or left shoulder.

Such pads are highly unsatisfactory since misplacement of the individually attached pads as by the attachment thereof or by dry cleaning of a finished garment gives the garment a grotesque appearance on the wearer due to the shifting of the pad.

The pad of this invention prevents misalignment of the left shoulder pad relative to the right shoulder pad. It also prevents the neck section of the coat, cape, or jacket containing such a pad from stretching out of shape.

It is an object of this invention to provide a foundation shoulder pad which is readily and accurately positioned for securing to a garment.

It is another object to provide a single foundation pad adapted to fit both shoulders simultaneously.

It is still another object to provide a single foundation pad which results in a saving of labor in its application.

It is yet another object to provide a foundation shoul- 2,802,216 Patented Aug. 13, 1957 invention upon a dressmakers model or manikin. In the centering of the bi-shoulder pad upon a manikin the line 13 is placed in juxtaposition over the center of the der pad which prevents stretching of the neck section of a garment to which it is attached.

It is yet another object to provide a foundation shoulder pad of simple and inexpensive construction readily applied to a garment in a minimum of time.

These and other objects of this invention will become apparent upon reading the following descriptive disclosure taken in conjunction with the accompanying illustrative drawing in which:

Fig. l is a perspective schematic view of the bi-shoulder pad disposed upon a wearer,

Fig. 2 is a front view of one modification of this invention,

Fig. 3 is a front view of another modification of this invention,

Fig. 4 is a section view taken on line 4-4 of Fig. 2 and Fig. 5 is a section view taken on line 55 of Fig. 3.

According to this invention an integral bi-shoulder foundation piece 10 of preferably woven fabric is cut appropriately to provide a curvatured neck embracing edge 11 adapted to continuously hug the base of the neck of a wearer of the shoulder pad both behind the neck and about both shoulders. The piece 10 therefore func tions as a structural unit adapted to carry and evenly distribute upon the shoulders of a wearer the weight of the garment (not shown) to which the pad is sewn.

The bottom edge 12 of the integral bi-shoulder piece is provided with a depending substantially crescent shape curve. As can be seen in Fig. 1, the neck line edge 11 and the bottom edge 12 converge toward a medial line 13 at which line the distance between edge 11 and edge 12 is at a minimum.

This medial line 13 may be marked by means of ink or it may consist of stitches of thread. It is a llne of great importance in centering the bi-shoulder pad of this spine.

The bi-shoulder pad of this invention may consist of two similar pieces, i. e. top piece 10 and bottom piece 10X attached to one another and provided with shouler pockets at each side extremity (Fig. 2) or the bi-shoulder pad may consist of a single integral piece 10 provided with a pair of triangular pocket pieces secured to the respective shoulder areas of the structural piece 10 'Where two structural integral bi-shoulder foundation pieces 10 and 10X are employed, the pieces are secured together by threads 14 disposed in the neckline edge only. The bottom edges 12 of pieces 10 and 10X are preferably not sewn together in order to permit comfortable adaptation of the pad to the shoulder movements of th wearer thereof.

A left and a right pocket is provided by sewing appropriate obliquely disposed thread lines 15 between the neckline 11 from a point 16 in spaced-relationship to the end of line 11 to a respective adjacent terminal 17 of edge 12.

In forming the pockets of the modification shown in Fig. 3 having but one integral piece 10, a pair of suitably cut triangular pieces 18 are disposed over the respective left and right shoulder areas of foundation piece 10.

These pocket pieces 18 having a top edge 19 and a bottom edge'20 are sewn to the foundation piece 10 by threads 21f The top pocket edge 19 is disposed along neckline 11 from one end thereof to a point 16X in spaced relationship to said end and the bottom edge 20 is disposed between point 16X obliquely to an adjacent terminus 17X of the bottom edge 12.

In preparing the bi-shoulder foundation pad of Fig. 2 of this invention a suitable conventional triangular wedge shaped piece of conventional sponge glass 22, having tapered edges along the two sides adapted to be secured in the shoulder pockets, is disposed upon the foundation piece 10X and thereafter foundation piece 10 is placed thereupon. Subsequent sewing together of pieces 10 and 10X by threads 14 and 15 also simultaneously sews the sponge glass 22 integrally therebetween thereby sewing the tapered edges of sponge glass 22 in intermediate relationship to said foundation pieces 10 and 10X.

In preparing the shoulder foundation pad shown in Fig. 3, the identical wedge shaped triangular sponge glass is employed but in this latter case the glass 22 is sewn .intermediately between the edges 18 and 19 of the respective pockets and the corresponding foundation piece 10.

In sewing the foundation pad piece together preferably a conventional double row of threads are used, but single row stitching of the elements together is operable. The integral shoulder pad of this invention replaces the separate shoulder pads of the prior art, which separate pads were extremely diflicult to separately sew into a garment at exactly the same neck distance for each pad. The result was that where separate shoulder pads are used, misalignment of shoulder pads one from the other was common resulting in misshapen garments. Such misalignment is impossible with this invention.

Moreover, the foundation piece being integral between both shoulders it prevents the garment to which it is affixed from stretching out of shape. Nor can the foundation bi-shoulder pad of this invention be dislodged by dry cleaning or hanger fatigue stresses since the neckline of the pad is secured throughout its length to the corresponding neckline of the attached garment.

The pad of this invention is adapted to give a foolproof fit to a garment and can be attached by people of a minimum of skill.

This invention has been described by means of a plurality of illustrative embodiments but its scope is ofa greater natureand such broad scope is intended to be covered by the claim herein. a 7

Thus the sponge glass filling for the pockets may be made of sponge rubber, cotton filling, and like conventional shoulder pad pocket filling material.

Furthermore, while the shoulder pad pockets of this invention have been disclosed in the illustrative embodiment as substantially triangular in shape, the triangular shape of the pockets may be distorted if desired, so that the neck-line of the pocket section hugs the neck of the wearer so as to be disposed substantially toward the jaw of the wearer.

Also padding material of various thickness and configurations may be placed in the pockets of the shoulder pad to effect fashionable styling features.

Therefore, the pockets of this invention may be varied considerably to effect a higher shoulder effect or a wider shoulder effect to the garment to which the pad is afiixed according to the dictates of the fashion at any particular time.

The important feature of this invention is the unitary shoulder foundation piece which bridges the shoulder areas of the pad. Preferably this bridging piece is integral with the right and the left shoulder areas, but a separate bridge section secured fixedly by sewing to the separate shoulder areas is also within the conceptive scope of this invention.

It is therefore apparent that the pad of this invention keeps the neck of the garment in shape and prevents undesirable stretching of the neck and shoulder areas of the garment. This absence of stretching gives to the l 4 garment wearer a feeling of light weight in spite of the actual heavy weight of the garment for example, fur coat or wool overcoat. In other words, the shoulder pad evenly distributes the weight of the garment upon the shoulders of the wearer.

What is claimed is:

A bishoulder foundation pad for garments comprising a bottom longitudinal fabric element having a continuous curvatured top edge, said top edge comprising a neck line edge disposed adjacent the back of the neck, said top edge also comprisingat its respective ends a respective front shoulder hugging edge, a top longitudinal fabric element identical to said bottom element secured along the continuous top edge, said pad having a curvatured back or bottom edge in opposed relationship to said top edge forming a bridge section of minimum width, a line of stitches disposed in said bridge section, and a respective pocket forming line of stitches disposed from the respective ends of said back edge, where each of said front shoulder hugging edges joins, each of said pocketforming line of stitches proceeding to the bottom adjacent corner of the longitudinal fabric element, said lines of stitches securing said top element to said bottom element, said pocket forming lines of stitches forming pad receiving triangular pockets at the ends of the rectangular elements.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,365,280 Lahrn Dec. 19, 1944 2,420,799 Siteman May 20, 1947 2,445,646 Sturz July 20, 1948 2,610,337 McMillin et a1 Sept. 16, 1952 2,763,870 Mitchell Sept. 25, 1956 

